[RESOLVED] iterating through function and return more than one variable

asa_carter

I am building a simple discussion board. I need to keep to some counts of posts and other things as this function is iterated through. How do I keep the value of the count in scope and increment it and also return more than one variable?

	public function getPosts($postId)
	{
		$posts = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM discussion WHERE id='$postId'");
		while ($post = mysql_fetch_array($posts)) {
			$output .= "<div id=\"post{$post["id"]}\" class=\"post\">
				<div class=\"postHeader\">
					<div class=\"postAuthor\"><strong>{$post["author"]}</strong> wrote</div>
					<div class=\"postTimestamp\"><span style=\"color:gray;\">" . readableTime::getTime($post["timestamp"]) . "</span></div>
					<div class=\"clearFix\"></div>
				</div>
				<div class=\"postContent\">
					<div class=\"postMessage\">{$post["body"]}</div>
					<div class=\"postActions\">
						<div class=\"postDetails\">
							<div class=\"postNumber\">Post #1</div>
							<div>1 reply</div>
						</div>
						<div><a href=\"#\">Reply to Post</a></div>
						<div><a href=\"#\">Delete Post</a></div>
						<div><a href=\"#\">Edit Post</a></div>						
						<div><a href=\"#\">Report Post</a></div>
					</div>
					<div class=\"clearFix\"></div>
				</div>
			</div>";
		}
		$subPosts = mysql_query("SELECT id FROM discussion WHERE parentId='$postId'");
		while ($subPost = mysql_fetch_array($subPosts))
			$output .= discussionBoard::getPosts($subPost["id"]);

	return $output;
}

katsurace

One main draw back of function is that it never returns more than one value per function call. This problem can be solved by use of pointers or array. this method is called call by reference . In this case Actually function doesn't return a value, it makes changes on actual address of the variable. For more detail look in function call by reference.